Square Enix's Hiroyuki Ito has revealed to 1UP the origin of the turn-based battle system in the original Final Fantasy - and it's somewhat unexpected, to say the least.

Driven to create an efficient system for Hironobu Sakaguchi's seminal NES RPG, Ito turned to professional sports for his inspiration.

1UP: So did you create the battle system, or work on balancing it...?

HI: I actually created the battle system, yes.

1UP: What was your inspiration for that?

HI: Basically, there's no one inspiration that I got that battle system from. It was just a logical process, where I thought, "How can I create an efficient battle system for a role-playing game?" That's the answer that I came to. At the root of it all, though, there's a basic kind of system that comes from professional sports...

1UP: Any particular sport that you had in mind?

HI: Yeah, the NFL. Football is probably the closest thing.

Whatever next? Super Mario was influenced by Tiddlywinks? Zelda was inspired by Volleyball? Where does it all end?

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded. DamienMcFerran